'Human beings need one another.' Photo: Pixabay via pexels.com.
Stone soup and street parties
Catherine Henderson writes about community and welcome
Once there was a traveller who had been walking many days with nothing to eat but leaves and wild berries. At last she came to a village and the chieftain came to greet her. ‘You are welcome, traveller, but we can offer you nothing to eat. We are starving.’ The traveller reached into her bag and fished out a large stone. ‘Set a pot of water over the fire,’ she said, ‘and when it is boiling add this stone.’
The chieftain was puzzled, but did as the traveller said. Soon one of the villagers appeared, hollow with hunger. ‘We have nothing left but this bone. Can we share what is in the chieftain’s pot?’
‘Of course,’ said the traveller, ‘just pop your bone in the pot.’ Soon other villagers came, some with herbs, some with old withered vegetables. Everything went into the pot and soon the most wonderful smell was drifting over the village.
In the evening the whole village sat down to a meal of delicious ‘stone soup’. Next morning the traveller went on her way, leaving the stone with the villagers. And the villagers never went hungry again.
This is a version of an old story, originally from France. One of the things it makes me think about is how a lot of us don’t really know our neighbours very well, and we only come together if something goes wrong – for example, if there’s a flood or people get stuck in their cars in the snow and can’t get home. We spend most of our time in our homes, not really aware of other people’s lives going on around us.
I grew up in a road where most people were quite ‘private’ and not particularly friendly with one another. Our side of the road backed on to a barley field, where we all played and built camps. One day in late summer, the farmer had just harvested the barley and the straw was lying in long stripes, waiting to be baled. Someone a few doors down was having a bonfire at the bottom of the garden, but it was a windy day and the flames spread to the straw. Soon the entire field was burning, and the fire was spreading towards the next field.
All our neighbours rushed out with forks and rakes. Everyone was calling to each other through the smoke, working together to rake the straw clear of the flames and away from the field boundary. Thinking about it now, I suppose it was quite dangerous, but at the time it was really exciting. Sadly, I can’t remember another occasion when all the people from our road got together.
Where I live now, we all get together for bonfire night and bring out food to share. Perhaps you do this too, or have street parties sometimes? For the past two years, there has been an event called The Great Get Together held in memory of the MP Jo Cox. People organise community parties and other events, and there are already plans for next year, 21-23 June. Maybe this is something you might like to help organise for where you live?
Throughout human history, until quite recently, it was perfectly normal to have big parties and feasts. Near Stonehenge archaeologists have discovered evidence of enormous feasts that people had travelled to from all over Britain. They know this because some of the animal bones they’ve found there are from sheep and cattle born in Scotland and Wales. One prehistoric method of cooking meat was in great trenches full of water, which were heated by large stones taken from the fire and dropped into the water.
Which brings us back to stone soup. In the story it took the visit of a stranger to bring the people of the village together, and what they found was that, on their own they were hungry, but when they joined together and shared what they had, there was plenty for everyone. Human beings need one another. And we don’t have to wait for a ‘disaster’, like our fire in the back field (which we did eventually put out, by the way) to get together and enjoy each other’s company.
